‘They are resilient, strong & engaged’

Blind couple to take part in 2K walk to raise funds for Ottawa’s Citizen Advocacy, an organization that supports disabled people

Marsha and Butch Gilchrist have a knack for overcoming adversity. Not even knee-replacement surgery and a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis will prevent the blind couple, who met at camp in 1983, from taking part in Ottawa Race Weekend.

Photograph by: Chris Mikula
, The Ottawa Citizen

Sixty years ago, Marsha Gilchrist came into a world she would never see. When she was born the optic nerves in her eyes were already irreparably damaged, leaving her blind.

“All of my family can see, except I can’t see,” she says. “The doctors looked at my eyes and they couldn’t do anything.”

Sitting in her Nepean apartment, her eyelids rarely open as she talks about the challenges of living in a world that has no images, and no colours.

“To never be able to see the stars, or the shape of the sun — to never see it come up or down, and never see the moon,” she says, and then pauses, collecting herself before continuing, “I sort of have to imagine it. I’ve never seen colours. It can be hard.”

But it’s precisely these challenges that prompted Marsha, and her husband Gordon (Butch) Gilchrist, to sign up for the 2K walk at Ottawa Race Weekend. They are helping to fundraise for Citizen Advocacy — an Ottawa organization that supports people who live with disabilities.

“I’ve heard some people say that they don’t think a blind person could go in a race,” she says. “That hurts because I don’t think it’s impossible. That’s why I am motivated to try to show people that it can be done.”

Butch nods his head appreciatively listening to Marsha’s words. He is 71, and is nearly as blind. He was born with cataracts and has lost approximately 90 per cent of his vision.

“I had my first eye operation when I was six months old,” he says. “Back in those days, before they had all the laser beams they have now, they’d have to take the eye half out of the socket to deal with the cataract, and then put the eye back in again.”

Butch met Marsha in 1983 at a camp sponsored by the Canadian Institute for the Blind. She was lost, and separated from a group she had been walking with. A camp counsellor found her and introduced her to Butch. He guided her to where she needed to go.

At the time, Butch was living in Bancroft, Ont., and Marsha was living in Hamilton. The courtship began soon after camp ended.

“He wrote me letters on tape and sent me country music that I liked,” says Marsha. “And I often wondered how he was doing in Bancroft.

“Eventually he came to Hamilton, we started going steady, and then we got married in 1986.”

At this point, Butch jumps into the conversation excitedly, “It was on June 21,” he says. “Our anniversary is on June 21.”

27 years later, their hearts remain, more than ever, married to one another. And together they’ve continued to overcome adversity.

In the last seven years, Butch has had replacement surgery on both of his knees, and now uses a walker to get around. And this past year, Marsha was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

None of it ever keeps them down, says Susan Pope who works with Marsha through Citizen Advocacy.

“They are very resilient, very tough and engaged people,” Pope says. “They just get on with whatever life throws at them and continue to find lots of joy and happiness.”

And that’s what both expect to accomplish on race weekend. While they are participating to prove something to themselves, they’re also helping to raise funds for Citizen Advocacy.

Butch and Marsha have each been matched with “volunteer advocates” for more than five years, and say they are excited to help the organization surpass its fundraising goal of $20,000. Click here to visit the donation page.

“I think they will be thrilled to bits with themselves,” says Pope about how the couple will react when they cross the finish line. “And also thrilled to be a part of something for Citizen Advocacy and fundraising.”

Marsha pauses again when asked what she thinks finishing the race will be like. She opens her eyelids. Twin, lambent blue, ice crystals stare out.

A benefit of being blind, she says, is “I can picture the world in whatever way I want it to look like.

Story Tools

Marsha and Butch Gilchrist have a knack for overcoming adversity. Not even knee-replacement surgery and a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis will prevent the blind couple, who met at camp in 1983, from taking part in Ottawa Race Weekend.

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